Wednesday, 5 January

Dull, with snow

1. The Pravda editorial today was written by Zaslavsky who severely criticised Willkie, saying that on 31 December last year Willkie published an article entitled “Should we Trust the Soviet Union”. What Willkie said was as follows: 1) The Soviet Army will reach the Polish border. The Soviet Union should clearly indicate its attitude towards the three Baltic Sea states, and Finland, as well as towards the small states in the Balkans. Otherwise there will be a crisis in the future. 2) The Soviet Union should not interfere with American internal policy. (Zaslavsky refuted that) regarding the first point, the three Baltic Sea states are internal problems of the Soviet Union, and this relates only to the Soviet constitution. As for the relationships between Finland, the Balkans states and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union would take care of it and it was nothing to do with Mr. Willkie. As for the second point, what Mr. Willkie said was influenced by rumours and these should not be the words coming from someone who trusted the Soviet Union. All in all, Mr. Willkie’s article on the one hand said that we should trust the Soviet Union, on the other it said we should be anti-Soviet. It must be that he wants to run for the next presidential election, so he published this type of article, in order to please all walks of people. Mr. Willkie originally represented capitalists, he came to the Soviet Union and supported it earlier, but this seems not to be from the bottom of his heart. Also, Soviet Union public opinion earlier treated him well because he showed friendliness towards the Soviet Union. Now the Soviet Union criticises him angrily, and probably all things are driven by interest. If interests of both sides collide, then they will become enemies. This sort of thing could happen personally, just as it could happen among countries. This further proves that Confucius’ and Mencius’ teachings can be applied universally.

2. Taught Attaché Hu English grammar.